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Researcher Robert Balfanz says by ninth grade, he can identify 75% of the kids who will drop out from high school. That’s when a team of nonprofits rushes in to help (San Antonio, Texas) — First period was just about to start, and Angel Mendoza was already asleep at his desk. He’s often tired at school after working late-night shifts in the kitchen at Alamo Pizza, but he needs the money and the busy schedule keeps him out of trouble. “Honestly, sometimes I don’t even do my homework,” said...

Sex offenses against minors don't always feature deviant adults preying on children; kids themselves can also be the perpetrators. Young adolescents account for roughly half of all cases of sex offenses against younger children; one out of every eight of young offenders are under the age of 12. But it wasn't until the latter half of the 20th century that researchers began paying attention to juvenile sex offenders, when research revealed that up to one-third of adult offenders began...

I t’s the first day of class for Child Development 123: Learning Disabilities, and instructor Sylvia Buford, PhD, is laying down some rules. “I do children’s disabilities. I don’t do adult meltdowns,” she says. “If there’s a problem” — she points at her desk — “I will have to use that radio” to summon help. Her students, more than a dozen women dressed in the orange sweatshirts and sweatpants worn by inmates of San Francisco County Jail Number 2 near downtown San Francisco, listen quietly as...

Introduction Are you feeling depressed? Are you sleeping less than normal or sleeping more than usual? Is your appetite increased or decreased? Are you feeling hopeless? These are all signs of depression. If you feel this way, have you ever considered journaling as a coping mechanism to handle these symptoms associated with depression. You may ask why is journaling a good coping mechanism to use to handle the symptoms associated with depression. This article will describe just this. For...

Today, even though we’ve made much progress, postpartum depression (PPD) still gets confused with baby blues. It still gets minimized and dismissed. Oh, don’t worry. Being sad and sobbing are totally normal. So is feeling frustrated. You just gave birth, after all. You just need some sleep. A day off. A change in attitude. Maybe you should stop putting so much pressure on yourself. Maybe you’re not used to being home so much. You need time to adjust. You need to get used to your new normal.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are described as the negative life events that children are exposed to which often cause traumatic lifelong side effects. The ACE questionnaire was put together by the Kaiser Permanente Health Clinic in San Diego and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1995 to study the effects that those traumatic events can sometimes lead to in a person's life. The questionnaire is a list of ten seemingly simple questions, things like 'did a parent or...

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The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health invites eligible organizations in Texas to respond to this request for proposals (RFP) to fund peer policy fellow positions in nonprofit organizations. The goal of this initiative is to increase the consumer voice in mental health policy development and implementation, and to build consumer capacity to effectively engage in mental health policy and advocacy. Depending on the quality of proposals received, the foundation plans to award up to five grants...

As a country, we honor our veterans in various ways. We stand when the national anthem is played, we take our hats off during the pledge of allegiance, and we recognize national holidays such as Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Although these displays are symbolic and meaningful, Texas needs to take more tangible steps to ensure veterans are honored one other way: with opportunity to achieve the best quality of life possible. That means supporting and expanding Veterans Treatment Courts. Of...

As a student, you’re probably pretty familiar with stress. You might also have wondered why some of your peers on campus seem to handle their challenges relatively easily while others struggle to meet similar demands. That difference relates to resilience, or grit: the ability to overcome and draw strength from difficult situations. “At our most resilient, we can surf the waves of change and stress rather than being swamped and drowned by them,” says Dr. Holly Rogers, a psychiatrist at Duke...

Victoria Blakeney is with the new state Office of Safe and Respectful Learning Environments, and was one of more than a dozen presenters. She says that Nevada kids are experiencing trauma at higher rates than the national average. “Our data shows that kids, more than half, are coming from at least one ACE.” By that, she means adverse childhood experience. According to Blakeney’s research, more than 10 percent of kids in Nevada report not having enough food to eat, nearly 10 percent of high...

In a lot of ways, we have more in common with chimpanzees than we do with bonobos. Both species of ape are considered humans’ genetically closest living relatives, but chimpanzees live in patriarchal societies, start wars with their neighbors, and, as a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences put it, “do not take kindly to strangers.” By contrast, bonobos, which form female-dominated societies, have no problem welcoming outsiders into the fold: They mate,...